Wire-reeling apparatus.



W. E. GIBBS.

v WIRE REELING APPARATUS- APPUCATION FILED MAY 13, I910.

Patented June 20, 1916.

2 SHEETSSHEET l.

W. E. (HBBS.

WIRE REELING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 13. 1910.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Patented June 20, 1916.

Snvcnfoz Q D aHmmn J II T UT T TW t it WILLIAM E. GIBBS, OE PITTSBURGH,PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, T0 GIBBSCOMPANY, OF PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY, A COB- PORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

WIRE-REELING- APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 22, 11916.

Application filed May 13, 1910. Serial No. 561,221.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM E. GIBBS, acitizen of the United States, and a resident of Pittsburgh, in thecounty of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Wire-Reeling Apparatus, of which thefollowing is a full and clear specification.

My invention relates to apparatus for reeling or coiling wire.

The principal object of my invention is to provide apparatus ofthischaracter in which the coil of wire may be removed without stopping themachine.

y invention is also directed to certain improvements in the operation ofconducting the wire to the block or member about which it is to becoiled.

Although it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to theparticular details or arrangement of parts herein shown, I shall for thesake of clearness describe an embodiment of the invention wherein theessential features are employed in conjunction with the drawing ofcopper wire.

In said drawings Figure 1 illustrates in vertical section one of thepreferred forms of my invention as applied to drawing and reeling copperwire.- Fig. 2 shows the block and reeling device in full elevation. Fig.3 is a plan view thereof with parts re.- moved. Fig. 4 is a detailsectional elevation of a modified form of connection between two of thegear devices to be hereinafter explained, and Fig. 5 is a detailsectional elevation, showing a modification in the location of the drawplate.

Referring now more specifically to said drawings, it will be seen'that Ihave illustrated the apparatus as mounted upon a supporting frame orstandard comprising legs 10 and 11 and cross pieces 12 and 13. The crosspiece 13 has a central bearing 14 for a shaft 15 which has secured on ita bearing ring 16 and miter gear 17. The shaft 15 has a central bore 18through which the wire may be led and is milled out at 19 to facilitatethe insertion of the wire in beginning operation. Rotary motion may beimparted to the shaft by suitable drive, as by bevel gear 20 in meshwith bevel gear 17 and disposed in suitable bearing 21 in the standard.The rotary shaft 15 7 passes through a horizontal plate 22 suitablysecured to the standard and having fixed thereto a gear plate 23. Abovethe gear plate 23 a split arm 24 is clamped upon the shaft 15 by bolts25 and 26 as clearly shown in Fig. 3, the latter providing a bearing fora grooved guide roller 27 disposed within the recess of the arm 24 withits periphery alined with the central bore 18 of the shaft 15. The arm24 thus rotates with the shaft 15 while the gear plate 23, being fixedto the plate 22 and standard of the machine, re mains stationary. Asecond gear plate 28 is loosely mounted on the shaft 15 above revolvingarm 24 and has secured to it the block 29 as by screws 30, the block 29fitting loosely upon the end of the shaft 15. The upper end of the block29 may, when desired, be provided with a flange plate 31 which may beremovably supported thereon as by an annular flange 32 adapted toslidewithin the recessed upper end of the block.

Fitting loosely around the lower portion of.

the block 29 is a beveled annular disk or ring 33 which is provided withan inner annular flange 34 by which it rests upon thegear 28, so thatthe ring may be tilted slightly as hereinafter described.

In order to facilitate the removal of the coiled wire without stoppingthe machine, ll maintain the block stationary and supply the wire'to thelower portion of it from below by revolving the feed or'guide deviceabout it, thus maintaining the reeled wire stationary and removable fromabove without interfering with the continued winding or reeling of thewire about the lower portion of the block. In order to accomplish thisthe arm 24 is provided with a bearing 35 in which is disposed a shaft 36having fixed thereon a spur gear 37 in mesh with gear plate 23 and aspur gear 38 in mesh with the gear 28. The number of teeth on gear plate23 is equal to'that on gear 28, and the number of teeth on spur gear 37is equal to that on spur gear 38. It will thus be seen that as the arm24 revolves, the spur gears 37 and 38 and shaft 36 have a planetarymotion about the two gears 23 and 28, and as the gear 23 is heldstationary, the gear 28 will also be held stationary. The arm 24 is alsoprovided with a socket 39 adapted to receive the fork or bracket 40 inwhich is mounted a grooved guide roller 41. The guide roller 41 may bythis connection i be tilted to the desired .angle so that it may receivewire coming from the guide roller 3 27 above described and direct itproperly to the lower portion of the block 29 immediately above the ring33 as the arm 24 revolves. Preferably the fork is centrally perforated,so that the wire may pass through it, as shown clearly in Fig. 1, andthe guide roller 41 is so positioned in the fork 40 that its groove ismaintained in alinement with the groove in the guide roller 27 in allpositions.

To assist in laying the wire at the bottom of the coil upon the block29, I provide for the tilting of the ring 33 upon its flange 34 abovereferred to. This is accomplished by means of a roller 42 journaled inan arm 43 projecting from the revolving arm 24. It will be noted fromFigs. 2 and 3 that the roller 42 tilts the ring 33 down at the sidewhere the wire is fedto the block and up at the opposite side. Theeffect of this is to crowd the wire up at the side opposite to where itis fed on and form a space between the lowermost turn of the coil andthe ring at the side where the wire is to be fed on, .and into thisspace the wire is fed. The guide roller 41 and the tilting roller 42being revolved in unison with the revolving 80 arm 24, insures that thespace for laying the wire as it is fed to the block will always bemaintained in the proper place.

I have shown in Fig. 1 a draw plate 44 which may rotate with the shaft15 and through which the wire may be drawn after passing through a bath45 of any desired material such as oil or soap and water. In thisarrangement, it will be noted that the twist which the wirereceives infeeding it through the revolving parts to the reeling device will takeplace before it has passed through the draw plate inasmuch as the drawplate is rotating with the shaft 15, and is thus removed by the drawplate. :This is not in" all cases desirable inasmuch as the subsequentmanipulation of the wire after it has been reeled may in certain casesinvolve a second twisting operation. Insuch cases it is desirable tofeed the wire onto the block witha twist in one direction which isremoved by the twist in the opposite direction which it receives in thesubsequent manipulation after it leaves the block. For this purpose Imay mount the draw plate 44 upon some stationary part of the apparatus,as for instance underneath the 1 cross bar 12 as illustrated in Fig. 5,so that the twist is received after the wire passes through the drawplate.

I have illustrated and described above the ordinary external gearconstruction for maintaining the gear 28 stationary with the gear plate23. It is of course obvious that many mechanical equivalents of thismeans exist by which the gear 28 may be held stationary with the gearplate 23. For example, in some cases it may be preferable to substitute,as indicated in Fig. 4, the internal gear rings 23 and 28' with spurgears 37 and 38 operating within them and suitably carried by arevolving arm 24 similar to the revolving arm 24 above described.

The operation of the apparatus is as follows: The wire from any suitablesource is fed through the bath 45 through the draw plate 44 and passedthrough the shaft 15 over the guide roller 27 through the fork 40 overthe adjustable guide roller 41 and a few turns around the block 29 afterwhich the end of the wire may be secured to the block if desired in anywell known manner. The power shaft is then set in operation and rotarymovement applied to the apparatus through the bevel gears 20 and 17 asabove indicated. Arm 24 being thereby revolved will cause the adjustableguide roller 41 to revolve about the block and the advance end of thewire being stationary upon the block 29, this motion will operate todraw the wire through thedraw plate 44. As the wire accumulates upon theblock 29, it is crowded up, assisted bythe tilting of the rim 33, andmovesup upon the smaller portion of the block in well knownmanner.Obviously all but a few turns of the coiled wire may be either detachedor continuously removed from the block for any desired subsequentoperations, as the block and coil are stationary and no moving parts arein position tointerfere with the wire as it is taken ofi at the top ofthe block.

I claim:

1. A wire reeling apparatus, comprising in combination a stationaryblock, a ring surrounding the bottom of the block, revolving means forwinding the wire about the block, and means revolving with said windingmeans for tilting said ring.

2. A. wire reelingapparatus, comprising in combination a stationaryblock, a ring surrounding the lower portion thereof, revolving means forwinding the wire around h the lower portion of the block, means foreading the'wireto said winding means from below the block, and meansrevolving with said winding means for tilting said ring.

3. A Wire reeling apparatus, comprising in' combination a stationaryblock, a ring surrounding said block, a rotary shaft, a revolving armsecured to said shaft, a guide roller revolving with said arm, adaptedto wind the wire about/the block, means revolving with said arm fortilting said ring, and means for leading the wire to said guide roller.4. A .wire reeling apparatus, comprising in combination a block, a gearfixed thereto, a stationary gear, revolving means for winding the wireabout the block, and a planetary gear device revolving with said Windingmeans and adapted to prevent relative movement between said stationarygear and the gear secured to the block.

5. A. wire reeling apparatus, comprising in combination a rotary shaft,a block loosely mounted thereon, a revolving arm secured on said shaft,means carried by said arm for winding the Wire about the block, andmeans revolving with said arm for holding the block stationary.

WILLIAM E. GIBBS. Witnesses:

OCTAVIUs KNIGHT,

M. G. CRAWFORD.

